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Where does the word "pastel" come from? It comes from Italian pasta, passing through French before entering English (1660s).
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Where does the word "pastel" come from? It comes from Italian pasta, passing through French before entering English (1660s).
Pastel’s story begins in Italian: pasta meant “paste.” Paste, describing the pigment ground into a paste and formed into sticks. By 1600s, the word had taken hold in French as pastel. Settled in French for the colored drawing stick made from pigment paste. It reached English by 1660s as pastel. From Italian 'pastello', a paste of ground pigment; Rosalba Carriera made pastel portraits fashionable. Today, pastel means a soft, pale color, or an artistic medium made of pigment sticks.
- Stage 1 · Italian · 1500s pasta "paste", paste, describing the pigment ground into a paste and formed into sticks.
- Stage 2 · French · 1600s pastel "a colored drawing stick made from pigment paste", settled in French for the colored drawing stick made from pigment paste.
- Stage 3 · English · 1660s pastel "a soft colored drawing stick, or a pale color", from Italian 'pastello', a paste of ground pigment; Rosalba Carriera made pastel portraits fashionable.